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A life of education inspires conservation 19 July 2001 ©2001, Environmental News Network Jerry Kay (news@enn.com). Permission obtained on August 2001. E-mail message. In a way, you can say Tom Smylie carpools each morning. He shares the 45-minute commute to work from Edgewood, N.M., to Albuquerque with 50 white homing pigeons. But when he returns from his office, he drives alone. The birds have been trained to meet their master back at home, and they always arrive before he does. "They don't have the Big I traffic to contend with," quips Smylie. The exercise is not only a labor of love, he says. It also keeps his professional skills honed. As head trainer for the Rio Grande Zoo, Smylie's office is an open-air arena hedged in by pens of varying sizes. They contain some of the rarest bird species on Earth as well as some of the more common ones. He is ringleader at one of the parks' most popular events, the World Animal Encounters Show, a breathtaking exhibit featuring a colorful flock of feathered entertainment. At Smylie's beckoning, an emerald-feathered military macaw plunges from the lofty elbow of a towering cottonwood 100 yards away, points its hooked bill, and sails on outstretched wings, swooping just inches above the heads of the crowd. The bird lands smoothly on a perch directly in front of the audience and preens its brilliant plumage before nibbling at its reward, the grape in Smylie's hand, and reveling in the collective gapes of admiration. In giving people the opportunity to get up-close glimpses of birds, Smylie says the show combines entertainment with education for both children and adults. Parents, for example, may be surprised to learn that conscientious consumption of their requisite morning beverage can help preserve endangered parrots. Choosing shade-grown coffee supports a sustainable method of farming that conserves the disappearing wildlife habitat of South America. By contrast, traditional coffee plantations clear-cut large sections of rainforest, decimating wildlife habitat. Some parrots live longer than a century and, "make difficult and demanding pets," he says while his assistant trainer Bonnie Kangas exhibits the brilliant plumage of a 35-year-old green-winged macaw. "Read up before you make such a big decision. If you do get one, only buy ones that have been bred in captivity. Don't buy birds smuggled into the country. Not only is it illegal, it's immoral. They're losing their rainforest habitat at a rate of 150 acres per minute. Putting them into the pet trade just further leads to their demise." Tropical birds are not the only features of the show. For example, Ricky, the only trained roadrunner in the country, makes a brief and comical appearance on stage, strutting back and forth on command. The New Mexico State Bird is a ground-running cuckoo, says Smylie. It is imperative for him to highlight native wildlife. He says, "Everyone knows what a giraffe or an elephant is, these gigantic mammals from Africa, but not a lot of folks can say they've seen some of the creatures that are common in their own backyards, like a roadrunner." Smylie has plans for a show that will exclusively highlight indigenous species of New Mexico. He hopes to feature a raccoon, a red-tailed hawk, a sandhill crane, a bobcat, and others local critters. After Ricky leaves the stage, Smylie introduces what he calls a Texas-sized roadrunner, though it is neither from Texas, nor is it a roadrunner. The red-legged seriema, prancing into view on stilted legs, is more closely related to the sandhill crane and hails from the western grasslands of Brazil and Argentina. When Smylie tosses a rubber serpent to the ground, the seriema snatches it firmly in its prolonged beak and slams it repeatedly against the ground, as it would a real snake in the wild. Although trained, all the animals in the show are encouraged to exhibit only natural behaviors. "Showing live animals exhibiting natural behaviors is the highest step to take in conservation education," says Smylie. "I think once people can really get hands-on experience, they learn to love and identify with these animals, and that builds a deeper commitment. People can really identify with that, with how special each animal is." It becomes obvious that the most special bird for Smylie is Tillie, a 14-year-old peregrine falcon. "This is the world's fastest animal." he announces to a chorus of anticipation. "Because it only eats flying birds, it is built for speed. It can dive at speeds of over 250 miles per hour. It's the top gun of the bird world ... And you're very fortunate today to see this bird up close." Fortunate indeed. This top gun, the peregrine falcon, almost took a nosedive into the abyss. The species used to number more than 3,000 pairs in the United States. But because of the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, less than 100 pairs existed in the country by the mid-1960s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed the bird on the Endangered Species list, and subsequent to the 1972 federal banning of DDT, recovery efforts became plausible. The Peregrine Fund, supported by other conservation organizations, private corporations, and individuals, along with the state and federal agencies that provided logistical and financial assistance, worked intensively for the recovery of the species. On Aug. 20, 1999, the plausible became the possible: the bird was removed from the endangered species list. Citing the efforts of The Peregrine Fund, Smylie humbly neglects to mention his own involvement in work that was responsible for staving off total extinction. Smylie provided some of the first pairs of peregrines used by The Peregrine Fund to rebuild the species through captive breeding efforts at Cornell University. Over 25 years, The Peregrine Fund produced more than 6,000 young peregrines that were returned to the wild, mostly through a process called "hacking," in which the birds are gradually weaned from human-provided food as they acclimated to life in the wild. The effective strategies were used in modeling recovery efforts for other species, including the California condor and the bald eagle, the latter of which has been proposed for removal from the endangered species list. Sitting poised in Smylie's hand as he walks through the audience, Tillie cuts a perfect figure of physical grace. "It's hard to believe we almost lost such an amazing species," he says after explaining its near brush with extinction. The image of Smylie caught between his quiet admiration for the bird on his arm and his urge to explain it to others typifies the man's career. "I've always loved the outdoors, and I've always respected and admired nature," he says. As an undergraduate at UNM, Smylie began nurturing his love for falconry training and using raptors to hunt that has lasted for more then 40 years. After graduating, he studied eagles part time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service while teaching science for the Albuquerque Public School System. He is both a student and a teacher of the natural world. While on leave from his last office job as assistant regional director of external affairs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he worked with The Peregrine Fund and lectured on peregrine recovery in Europe. For two consecutive summers before the falcon was removed from the endangered species list, Smylie and his family lived in the wilderness near Mt. Rainier, Wash., and near Jackson Hole, Wyo., where they hacked peregrines into the wild. He, his wife Cherie, and their young daughter Jamie spent a total of 16 weeks in primitive conditions, acting as surrogate parents to the 12 peregrine falcons they released. "But New Mexico has always been my home," he says. "And I feel lucky to be here working with some of the great wonders of Mother Nature." He hopes his birds at the zoo will turn minds toward conservation to reverse the trend of habitat destruction. In concert with regulatory and enforcement efforts sanctioned by laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Lacey Act, and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), public education is the keystone. Smylie says, "I think education can really turn things around. It was, after all, education that led to the recovery of the peregrine falcon. After Rachel Carson denounced the harmful effects of DDT in her book Silent Spring, the pesticide was eventually banned." Reaching an audience of more than 50,000 zoo visitors last year, Smylie's program is more than an entertaining half-hour. And his is just one of about 100 similar educational programs throughout the country, from SeaWorld and Disney's Animal Kingdom in California to other animal parks and zoos that reach more than 3 million people a year, according to the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators. Smylie hopes that on future mornings, while he prepares for his day by loading pigeons onto the truck, more of us will prepare for ours with a cup of shade-grown coffee.

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